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The mechanical properties of industrially produced perforated steel plates are obtained by hardening and low-temperature tempering to produce a martensitic microstructure. Another morphological type of steel microstructure that allows for ultra-high strength and, at the same time, a level of ductility that qualifies it for use in armour is nanobainite. Research into nanobainitic steels has led to the development of plates manufacturing technology at a level that can be implemented in industrial production, and has confirmed the high potential of this material for use as additional armour in the form of perforated plates. This paper reports the results of research aimed at developing a technology for the production of perforated armour plates made of nanobainitic steel, with properties competitive with currently available perforated steel plates on the world market with the highest protective effectiveness under conditions of multi-hit firing tests with small and medium calibre ammunition. The tests were performed on 300 260 mm plates, with the nominal thicknesses of 8 mm, 6 mm and 4 mm, produced from industrially melted nanobainitic steel NANOS-BA. The protective effectiveness of nanobainitic perforated plates in a system with a solid armour steel backing plate of 500 HBW hardness was tested by multi-hit firing, according to the procedures set out in the STANAG 4569 and AEP-55 vol. 1 specifications (adapted to the format of tested plates), against selected projectile types assigned to protection levels 2 and 3. Based on the analysis of the results of the firing tests and the macroscopic and microscopic examinations of the perforated plates before and after firing, the optimum perforation method was selected and the most favourable geometrical and dimensional arrangements of the perforations were determined for different plate thicknesses.

Digraphs provide an alternative syntax for propositional logic, with digraph kernels corresponding to classical models. Semikernels generalize kernels and we identify a subset of well-behaved semikernels that provides nontrivial models for inconsistent theories, specializing to the classical semantics for the consistent ones. Direct (instead of refutational) reasoning with classical resolution is sound and complete for this semantics, when augmented with a specific weakening which, in particular, excludes Ex Falso. Dropping all forms of weakening yields reasoning which also avoids typical fallacies of relevance.

Ks. Henryk Grębski urodził się 2 sierpnia 1882 r. w Majdanie. Był absolwentem Gimnazjum w Rzeszowie. Przygotowanie do kapłaństwa odbył w Seminarium Duchownym w Przemyślu. Sakrament święceń przyjął 21 czerwca 1908 r. Pracował jako wikariusz w Cieklinie (1908-1910), Szebniach (1910-1913) i Jeżowem (1913-1914). Był kapelanem armii austriackiej (1914-1918) i Wojska Polskiego (1918-1919), a później wikariuszem w Grębowie (1920-1921). W roku 1921 został zamianowany proboszczem parafii w Kamieniu. Prócz zwykłej pracy duszpasterskiej zajął się doposażeniem kościoła. Angażował w działalność społeczną. Zmarł 2 listopada 1948 r.

At the tum of the 19,h and 20th centuries lots of religious communities were founded in the St John Baptist parish in Sokołów Małopolski. One of the most important was the Third Order of St Francis. Its foundation was preceded by many years of endeavours. The very idea was propagated by the inhabitant of Sokołów, Katarzyna Koziarz, who became the member of the secular family of Franciscan family in Rzeszów in 1890. Since then morę and morę people from Sokołów had joined the Tertiary.At the beginning of the 20“’ century those who took steps to popularize the Third Order were Katarzyna Koziarz in Sokołów, Maria Ożóg and Małgorzata Maksym in Wólka Sokołowska and Katarzyna Bąk in Trzebuska while the parish priests, Franciszek Stankiewicz and Leon Szado did little for this matter. The members of the Third Order got involved in lots of activities such as sup- porting the building of the church, providing necessary things for the church and making mass of- ferings.Serious steps to found the Third Order in Sokołów were taken by the parish priest Ludwik Bukała. He organized monthly meetings for the Third Order members. He also established contact with the Bemardine Father, Wiktor Biegus, who 27 April 1936 came to Sokołów and became ac- ąuainted with the tertiaries in the parish. The permission for the canonical establishment of tertiary congregation was granted 4 May 1936 by the ordinary of Przemyśl, Bishop Franciszek Bard.The official foundation of the congregation in Sokołów took place 24 May 1936. The local tertiaries chose St Ludwik as their patron. The congregation govemment was constituted at the first meeting. The parish priest became the director of the community and Katarzyna Koziarz was ap- pointed the superior. On the day of the foundation there were about 100 members. In the first three years of the existence of the Third Order there were 30 people who received the habits and 28 who were admitted to the profession.After the canonical establishment of the congregation, the tertiaries became morę active. They provided the church with sacred appurtenances and fumishings, as well as organising public adora- tion of the Holy Sacrament. They would also wash liturgical linens and adom altars. In 1937 they bought a chasuble with the image of St Francis, and in 1939 they donated a banner with the images of Mother of God and St Francis. In addition, the tertiaries founded their own library with religious books and magazines.The congregation gathered for meetings in the parish church every month. Besides, they had occasional private gatherings. In the first years of the existence of the congregation there were 19 meetings of the Counsel. There were also two visitations of the Sokołów congregation held by Father Cyryl from Rzeszów 11 July 1937 and 6 August 1939. The activities of the tertiaries were hindered by the outbreak of the Second World War.

The article aims at discussing the directions of development of the repertoire for chamber guitar-piano duet. Using the methods of historical sciences as well as music theory, the author focuses on the most important aspects of repertoire development, for the ensemble which is quite unusual in classical music, and relies on data from her own searches and interviews with composers. The repertoire is presented as a whole: from the time of the emergence of performance practice for guitar and piano, whose beginnings can be observed in the music of the 18th century, to compositions written in 2020. The repertoire has been divided into segments and classified according to the author's concepts. It also describes the most important, in the author’s - active concert performer – belief, sound perspectives in selected works with emphasis on those compositional means which guarantee the balance of sound of individual parts without multi-aspect prejudice to both instruments.

The article presents previously unpublished letters written by Andrzej Walicki (15.05.1930–21.08.2020), a worldly renowned Polish historian of Russian thought, to Professor Michael Maslin, the head of the Department of the History of Russian Philoso­phy at Lomonosov Moscow State University. Walicki’s letters (1997–2019) together with books, articles and other materials formed his gift to the abovementioned Department. Walicki himself referred to these materials as “my small Russian archive”. The letters are written in excellent Russian and require no additional revision or stylistic improvement. This publication retains the letters in their full originality including some phrases of Pol­ish origin. These unique epistles reveal Walicki’s individual creative worldview. The let­ters contain new information about the details of Walicki’s biography and his work in Poland, Russia, USA, Great Britain, Japan, Australia. The letters provide a unique per­spective on the “flow of ideas”, which was Walicki’s personal conception of understand­ing and interpretation of the Russian intellectual history from the Enligh­tenment through the Russian religious and philosophical Renaissance of the twentieth century. The letters discuss his interactions with Sergei Gessen, Isaiah Berlin, Leszhek Kolakowski, Czeslaw Milosz, George Kline, James Scanlan, Leonard Shapiro, Martin Malia, Richard Pipes, Nicholas Riasanovsky, James Billington etc. A special attention is paid to the critique of the Western and especially Polish Russophobia based on various superstitions and stereo­types about Russia as well on a lack of knowledge, various kinds of bias and blunders. Of considerable interest are Walitsky’s expert assessments of the ge­neral state of the scien­tific historiography of Russian philosophy, its fundamental diffe­rences from Soviet dog­matic Marxism, of which the Polish scientist was a consistent critic.

Graph normal form, introduced earlier for propositional logic, is shown to be a normal form also for first-order logic. It allows to view syntax of theories as digraphs, while their semantics as kernels of these digraphs. Graphs are particularly well suited for studying circularity, and we provide some general means for verifying that circular or apparently circular extensions are conservative. Traditional syntactic means of ensuring conservativity, like definitional extensions or positive occurrences guaranteeing exsitence of fixed points, emerge as special cases.

The address presents Janusz Kuczyński’s main ideas, conception and his diverse and longstanding activity (as an ideologist, philosopher, editor, ecumenist, patriot). The author of this essay includes his own reflections on Kuczyński’s views.

The article aims at summarizing different activities undertaken to organize and run the first post- war Chopin piano competition. It is an attempt to collect facts, accounts and memories concerning actions initiated by Polish music culture environment after the Second World War. The author fo- cuses on a detailed description of the organization and proceedings of the 4th International Piano Competition, making use of information that has existed in independent sources so far. The article uses diaries, biographies, autobiographies, private notes, interviews with representatives of Polish culture, archive films and documentaries belonging to the Polish Film Chronicle. Press excepts were not used on purpose, as most press information was included in the aforesaid bibliography entries. The analyzed sources let us conclude that the organization of the first post-was Chopin piano competition in Warsaw was an event requiring both the engagement of all state institutions and personal contribution of musicians and music teachers. The author considers such a detailed historical-cultural account justified and necessary, especially in 2020, the 210th birth anniversary of Frederic Chopin, the year in which the 18th Frederic Chopin International Piano Competition was supposed to take place.

In the paper I try to reconstruct and investigate the reasons which inclined Patočka to strongly expose the problem of sacrifice in his philosophical thought. To do so, I highlight the relationship between sacrifice, the meaning of life and three platonic ideas of goodness, beauty and truth, assuming sacrifice to be a perfect instrument of incorporating them. Finally, I argue that the nature of sacrifice is inherently equivocal and all studies concerning it should include its negative aspects. W artykule staram się zrekonstruować i zbadać przyczyny, które skłoniły Patočkę do silnej ekspozycji problemu poświęcenia w swojej myśli filozoficznej. Aby to zrobić, naświetlam relację pomiędzy poświęceniem, sensem życia oraz trzeba platońskim ideami dobra, piękna i prawy, rozpatrując poświęcenie jako idealne narzędzie ich ucieleśnienia. Na koniec przekonuję, że natura poświęcenia jest głęboko wieloznaczna i wszystkie badania, które jej dotyczą, powinny uwzględniać jego negatywne aspekty.

Omówione w artykule organizacje miały za zadanie zachować materiały źródłowe dotyczące losów Żydów podczas wojny oraz przygotować pierwsze opracowania poświęcone temu zagadnieniu. Zadanie to realizowały w sposób zależny od warunków zewnętrznych i różnic metodologicznych. W Warszawie, choć w konspiracji, możliwe było zbieranie materiałów z całego obszaru Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej. W Łodzi praca mająca charakter „oficjalny” uniemożliwiała pełny obiektywizm szczególnie w zakresie stanu zdrowotnego i wysiedleń. W Łodzi opierano się przede wszystkim na materiałach oficjalnych (dokumentach, oficjalnych wywiadach). W Warszawie poszukiwano materiałów nie tylko znajdujących się w dotychczasowym kanonie źródeł historycznych, ale sięgano do takich ich kategorii, które stanowiły podstawę ówczesnych badań socjologicznych. Oba zbiory przetrwały – ze stratami – wojnę i stanowią materiały do badań nad dziejami obu gett, przy czym znaczenie Archiwum Ringelbluma jest – ze względu na znacznie poważniejsze zniszczenia dokumentacji urzędowej – o wiele większe. Natomiast zbiory Archiwum łódzkiego getta były wykorzystywane dotychczas w mniejszym stopniu. Wiąże się to z różnicą zaawansowania badań nad oboma gettami i długotrwałym ograniczonym zainteresowaniem łódzkim gettem.

According to Richardson’s theorem, every digraph G without directed odd cycles that is either (a) locally finite or (b) rayless has a kernel (an independent subset K with an incoming edge from every vertex in G − K ). We generalize this theorem showing that a digraph without directed odd cycles has a kernel when (a) for each vertex, there is a finite set separating it from all rays, or (b) each ray contains at most finitely many vertices dominating it (having an infinite fan to the ray) and the digraph has finitely many ends. The restriction to finitely many ends in (b) can be weakened, admitting infinitely many ends with a specific structure, but the possibility of dropping it remains a conjecture.

In the article I describe a dual nature of morality, arguing that moral actions require a constant movement between complexity and simplicity of the moral world. In the first part of the article I examine heterogeneity of the moral sphere, pointing out that it should not be simplified. I try to show why morality cannot be seen as a domain of perfect clarity and why it is usually impossible to make a firm distinction between goodness and evil. In the second part I argue that despite the difficulties, morality also requires self-confidence which can be justified. Although some moral problems are demanding, many others can be solved relatively easily. In the last part of the paper I discuss a difference between primary, spontaneous moral self-confidence, connected with simplified moral judgments, and secondary, reflective one, which comes from overcoming and controlling initial moral doubts.

Damian Walicki is a lead nurse at Royal Star and Garter's Surbiton Home. Here, he talks about the mental and physical toll of COVID-19, the heartbreak of losing residents to the virus and his pride in the staff who give their all for the residents.

Graph normal form, GNF, [1], was used in [2, 3] for analyzing paradoxes in propositional discourses, with the semantics—equivalent to the classical one—defined by kernels of digraphs. The paper presents infinitary, resolution-based reasoning with GNF theories, which is refutationally complete for the classical semantics. Used for direct (not refutational) deduction it is not explosive and allows to identify in an inconsistent discourse, a maximal consistent subdiscourse with its classical consequences. Semikernels, generalizing kernels, provide the semantic interpretation.

Helena Vongl-Świderska (1845-1919), née Wikszemska, born in Nieśwież (now Niasviż, Belarus), a Polish woman from the old Polish family settled in Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania), was the first woman admitted to the New York College of Dentistry. In March or May 1872 she graduated from the College with the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery (see the enclosed copy of diploma) becoming the third woman to earn dental degree in the USA. In the same year she settled in St. Petersburg, Russia, opened there a dental clinic, and also her private dental school. It was the second dental school in Russia, but the best one. In 1904 she moved to Italy. Helena Vongl-Świderska, secundo voto de Nunzio died in Rome in 1919. This paper brings new biographical information about this little-known pioneer of the European and American dentistry.

Książka przedstawia, jak pewien zapoznany i krótki epizod z dziejów Rumunii został zaprezentowany przez polską prasę codzienną. Powstanie rządu Gogi-Cuzy było zaskoczeniem dla obserwatorów polityki owego czasu i wynikało z dalekosiężnych planów politycznych dążącego do dyktatury króla Karola II, a zagrożonego w swej władzy przez dynamiczny, faszystowski ruch Żelaznej Gwardii Corneliu Codreanu. Sprawowanie rządów znalazło się w rękach innej, równie radykalnej, ale słabszej i skłóconej z Codreanu partii. Książka przedstawia obrazy wydarzeń w Rumunii, jakie dla swych czytelników tworzyły dzienniki różnorakich opcji politycznych: od socjalistycznego „Robotnika”, poprzez chadeckie „Polonię” i „Głos Narodu”, prawicowy „Kurier Warszawski”, do oenerowskiego „ABC” i konserwatywnego „Czasu”. Uwzględniona jest również prasa obozu rządzącego („Gazeta Polska”) i polskojęzyczne dzienniki żydowskie (np. „Nasz Przegląd”, „Nowy Dziennik”). Oprócz szczegółowego przedstawienia antysemickiej polityki rządu – stanowiącej oś jego działania – w publikacji omówiono też inne zagadnienia działalności gabinetu Gogi-Cuzy, takie jak polityka wewnętrzna, polityka zagraniczna czy też budzące zrozumiałe zainteresowanie polskiej prasy stosunki polsko-rumuńskie. Książkę zamyka rozdział przedstawiający upadek rządu i opinie polskie o jego całościowej działalności.

Nociceptin and its receptor are widely distributed throughout the brain in regions associated with reward behavior, yet how and when they act is unknown. Here we dissected the role of a nociceptin peptide circuit in reward seeking. We generated a prepronociceptin (Pnoc)-Cre mouse line that revealed a unique subpopulation of paranigral ventral tegmental area (pnVTA) neurons enriched in prepronociceptin. Fiber photometry recordings during progressive ratio operant behavior revealed pnVTA(Pnoc) neurons become most active when mice stop seeking natural rewards. Selective pnVTA(Pnoc) neuron ablation, inhibition and conditional VTA nociceptin receptor (NOPR) deletion increased operant responding, revealing that the pnVTA(Pnoc) nucleus and VTA NOPR signaling are necessary for regulating reward motivation. Additionally, optogenetic and chemogenetic activation of this pnVTA(Pnoc) nucleus caused avoidance and decreased motivation for rewards. These findings provide insight into neuromodulatory circuits that regulate motivated behaviors through identification of a previously unknown neuropeptide-containing pnVTA nucleus that limits motivation for rewards.

A platform built with novel materials and manufacturing strategies enables electronics adaptable for various applications., Traditionally, electronics have been designed with static form factors to serve designated purposes. This approach has been an optimal direction for maintaining the overall device performance and reliability for targeted applications. However, electronics capable of changing their shape, flexibility, and stretchability will enable versatile and accommodating systems for more diverse applications. Here, we report design concepts, materials, physics, and manufacturing strategies that enable these reconfigurable electronic systems based on temperature-triggered tuning of mechanical characteristics of device platforms. We applied this technology to create personal electronics with variable stiffness and stretchability, a pressure sensor with tunable bandwidth and sensitivity, and a neural probe that softens upon integration with brain tissue. Together, these types of transformative electronics will substantially broaden the use of electronics for wearable and implantable applications.

Negative affective states affect quality of life for patients suffering from pain. These maladaptive emotional states can lead to involuntary opioid overdose and many neuropsychiatric comorbidities. Uncovering the mechanisms responsible for pain-induced negative affect is critical in addressing these comorbid outcomes. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell, which integrates the aversive and rewarding valence of stimuli, exhibits plastic adaptations in the presence of pain. In discrete regions of the NAc, activation of the kappa opioid receptor (KOR) decreases the reinforcing properties of rewards and induces aversive behaviors. Using complementary techniques, we report that invivo recruitment of NAc shell dynorphin neurons, acting through KOR, is necessary and sufficient to drive pain-induced negative affect. Taken together, our results provide evidence that pain-induced adaptations in the kappa opioid system within the NAc shell represent a functional target for therapeutic intervention that could circumvent pain-induced affective disorders. VIDEO ABSTRACT.

Based upon a Prandtl fluid flow model, a curvilinear squeeze film bearing is considered. The equations of motion are given in a specific coordinate system. After general considerations on the Prandtl fluid flow these equations are used to derive the Reynolds equation. The solution of this equation is obtained by a method of successive approximation. As a result one obtains formulae expressing the pressure distribution and load-carrying capacity. The numerical examples of the Prandtl fluid flow in gaps of two simple bearings are presented.

In the paper, the influence of the bearing surface roughness on the pressure distribution and load-carrying capacity of a curvilinear squeeze film bearing is discussed. The equations of motion of a pseudo-plastic lubricant of Rabinowitsch–Rotem–Shinnar (R–R–S) type are used to derive the Reynolds equation. After some consideration on the Christensen theory of hydrodynamic lubrication of rough bearing surfaces the modified Reynolds equation is obtained. The analytical solutions of this equation for the cases of a squeeze film bearing and an externally pressurized bearing and for two types of surface roughness are presented. As a result one obtains the formulae expressing pressure distribution of load-carrying capacity. Thrust radial and spherical squeeze film bearings are considered as numerical examples.

In the paper the influence of both bearing surfaces roughness and porosity of one bearing surface on the pressure distribution and load-carrying capacity of a thrust bearing surfaces is discussed. The equations of motion of a pseudo-plastic fluid of Rotem-Shinnar, are used to derive the Reynolds equation. After general considerations on the flow in a bearing clearance and in a porous layer using the Morgan-Cameron approximation and Christensen theory of hydrodynamic lubrication the modified Reynolds equation is obtained. The analytical solutions of this equation for the cases of squeeze film bearing and externally pressurized bearing are presented. As a result one obtains the formulae expressing pressure distribution and load-carrying capacity. Thrust radial bearing with squeezed film is considered as a numerical example.

Digraphs provide an alternative syntax for propositional logic, with digraph kernels corresponding to classical models. Semikernels generalize kernels and we identify a subset of well-behaved semikernels that provides nontrivial models for inconsistent theories, specializing to the classical semantics for the consistent ones. Direct (instead of refutational) reasoning with classical resolution is sound and complete for this semantics, when augmented with a specific weakening which, in particular, excludes Ex Falso. Dropping all forms of weakening yields reasoning which also avoids typical fallacies of relevance.

Positivism in Russia was not a separate, well-defined philosophical school but, rather, a broad, multidisciplinary current of thought, characterized by a cult of ‘positive science’, commitment to scientific, empirical methods and rejection of the metaphysical tradition in philosophy. As a rule, Russian positivists sympathized with materialism, although distanced themselves from the metaphysical assumptions of materialist philosophy. Their philosophical aspirations were usually limited to the investigation of specific problems, but their optimistic belief in the power of science could push them in the direction of an all-embracing ‘scientific philosophy’. In accordance with the naturalistic evolutionism of the second half of the nineteenth century, scientific philosophy involved the conception of objective laws of development and biological and/or sociological relativism – both incompatible with the ethicist standpoint. Many Russian thinkers, especially the so-called ‘subjective sociologists’, tried to combine positivist scientism with ethicism, claiming an independent status for moral values. Their efforts, however, could be successful only at the expense of abandoning the scientific rigour demanded by consistent positivists. Hence their views were semi-positivist rather than positivist. Through undermining the arrogant self-confidence and monopolistic claims of the crude forms of positivistic scientism, they paved the way for the outspoken revolt against positivism at the end of the 1890s.

‘The Russian Idea’ is a term used by Russian thinkers to define specific features of Russian culture, the spiritual make-up of the Russian nation, the meaning of Russian history and, as a rule (although not always), Russia’s unique mission in the universal history of humanity. The term was introduced for the first time in 1861 by Dostoevskii, for whom the essence of the Russian Idea was the ‘universal humanity’ (or ‘all-humanity’) of the Russian spirit. At the same time however, Dostoevskii linked the Russian Idea with Russian imperial messianism. Thus, the notion of the Russian Idea included from its beginning a characteristic tension between striving for universalism and nationalist self-assertion.. The first philosopher to devote a special separate work to the Russian Idea (l’Idée russe, Paris, 1888) was Vladimir Solov’ëv, for whom the national idea was ‘not what a given nation thinks about itself in time, but what God thinks about it in eternity’. He was influenced by Dostoevskii but, challenging Russian nationalists, put much greater emphasis on universalism, stressing that the peculiar greatness of the Russians consisted in their capacity for ‘self-renunciation’. The first case of this self-renunciation was the so-called ‘calling of the Varangians’, that is, the voluntary acceptance of foreign rule; the second was the reforms of Peter the Great: rejection of native traditions for the sake of universal progress. Now the Russian nation should commit itself to the third, most important act of self-renunciation: to submit itself to the authority of the pope, restoring thereby the unity of the Universal Church and bringing about the reconciliation between East and West. But this act of humility was seen by Solov’ëv as a precondition from the fulfilment of Russia’s great mission of creating the universal, freely theocratic Christian Empire. Solov’ëv invoked in this connection the monk Philotheus’ idea of ‘Moscow as the Third Rome’ but reversed its meaning by putting emphasis on symbolic Rome, that is, not on national isolationism and keeping intact the purity of the Orthodox faith, but on ecumenical universalism and the messianic task of the Christian transformation of the world. Owing to Solov’ëv, the term ‘Russian Idea’ came to be applied retrospectively, as a designation of a set of problems characteristic for Russian philosophical discussions about the essence of ‘Russianness’. Most historians agree that these problems were formulated under the reign of Nicholas I and that the first thinker who posed them forcefully was Pëtr Chaadaev.

Along with Lavrov, N.K. Mikhailovskii, a non-academic social theorist and literary critic, was the most representative and influential thinker of Russian populism. His most distinctive contribution to populist ideology was his attempt to reconcile the ’principle of individuality’, so dear to the Russian intelligentsia, with the old, communal ’principles of the people’, represented by the non-Westernized Russian peasantry. Unlike Herzen and Lavrov, Mikhailovskii did not see the principle of individuality as a product of Western progress, that is to say, as something which should be introduced from outside to the archaic world of Russian village commune. He challenged the stereotype which associated individualism with the capitalist West; instead, he tried to prove that the principle of individuality was in fact fully compatible with old Russian communalism, and incompatible with Western-type modernization. He did so by a radical redefinition of the very concept of individuality. For him individuality was not the product of a process of ’individualization’ in the sense of loosening the communal bonds, making people socially differentiated, functionally specialized and separated from each other. On the contrary, by individuality he meant the ’inner wholeness’, that is to say, the non-alienated, many-sided and harmonious development of human beings. Following the romantic critics of modernity, he claimed that individuality, so conceived, was being destroyed by capitalist progress. Mikhailovskii’s notion of individuality was similar to the Slavophile ideal of ’integral personality’. Unlike Slavophilism, however, Mikhailovskii’s ‘sociological romanticism’ was bound up with a secularist worldview and a semi-positivist position in philosophy. For this reason its affinity with Slavophile romantic anticapitalism was relatively inconsequential and remained unnoticed.

In his classic book The Russian Idea Nikolai Berdiaev pointed out that ‘independent Russian thought was awakened by the problem of the philosophy of history’. It was because educated, Westernized Russians needed an answer to the problem of Russia’s whence and whither: Who are we? Where are we going? What is Russia’s place in universal history? There were many reasons for this passionate search for the meaning of history. It was a means to define Russia’s national identity. It expressed the deeply felt need for modernization, stemming from increasing awareness of the contrast between Russia’s political power and its social backwardness. And – above all, perhaps – it was a result of the disintegration of Russia’s ecclesiastical culture, serving as a substitute for a religious world-view. The central place in this secular religion of history was occupied by the notion of progress. It showed a direction, thus answering the ‘cursed question’ of what was to be done; therefore, the nineteenth-century Russian intelligentsia saw the commitment to progress as the most important constitutive part of its self-definition. But many conceptions of progress could also function as a secular theodicy, or rather historiodicy, explaining and justifying the sufferings of the past and present as a necessary price for the triumph of truth and justice in the future. Even more: in a historically retarded country the idea of inevitable stages of development could serve also as a justification for suffering in the immediate future, providing arguments for the view that present individuals, and entire generations, had to sacrifice themselves for the earthly salvation of their descendants. Hence it is understandable that the idea of inevitable, universal progress found in Russia not only enthusiastic advocates but also powerful critics.

Russian thought is rarely associated with philosophy of law. The intellectuals of pre-revolutionary Russia are known rather for their uncompromising critique of legalism, passing sometimes into a genuine ‘legal nihilism’. Indeed, both right-wing and left-wing Russian thinkers – the Slavophiles and Dostoevskii on the one hand, the populists and anarchists (from Bakunin to Tolstoi) on the other – saw modern rational law as an instrument of egoistic bourgeois individualism, destroying the values of communal collectivism still preserved among the Russian peasantry. This attitude found expression not only in different forms of programmatic anti-capitalism but also in a tendency to discredit civil rights and political liberty as a mere mask for capitalist exploitation. Capitalist development and the juridicization of social bonds it involved were perceived as something peculiar to the West, coming to Russia from without and as such not worthy of acceptance. Law and legal rights were criticized in Russia from many quarters and for various reasons: in defence of an idealized autocracy or in defence of true freedom, on behalf of the Russian soul or on behalf of universal progress towards socialism, in the name of Christ or in the name of Marx. In this manner right-wing and left-wing Russian intellectuals supported one another in creating a peculiar tradition of the censure of law. However, it would be wrong to draw from these facts a conclusion of an inherent hostility between the ‘Russian mind’ and the ‘spirit of law’. The ‘juridical world-view’ of the Enlightenment was well represented in imperial Russia. The modernizing Russian autocrats – Peter the Great and Catherine the Great – believed firmly in the power of rational legislation and won admiration from among leading European thinkers (Leibniz, Voltaire, Diderot) fir setting a good example for Western monarchs. The first radical critic of Russian autocracy, Aleksandr Radishchev (1749–1802), was in turn a theorist of natural law, a firm believer in inalienable human rights, and an enthusiastic worshipper of the American constitution. Under the reign of Alexander I (1801–25), who himself thought seriously about the introduction of constitutional rule in Russia, admiration for law was very strong among Russia’s intellectual elite. Radischchev’s disciples, Ivan Pnin and Vasilii Popugaev, inspired also by the Scottish Enlightenment, advocated the idea of a ‘civil society’ with a developed system of private law and legally safeguarded human rights. Nikita Murav’ev and Pavel Pestel, ideological leaders of the two trends within the Decembrist movement (named so after the abortive uprising of December l825), expressed their ideas in the form of detailed constitutional projects. A common feature of these projects, otherwise very different, was a pronounced juridical rationalism, sharply contrasting with all variants of a sceptical attitude towards law.

Pëtr Tkachëv, the leading theorist of the ‘Jacobin’ current within Russian revolutionary populism, was a belated disciple of Gracchus (Francois Noël) Babeuf and a forerunner of Vladimir Lenin. Thus his ideas, although lacking theoretical sophistication, had some historical importance as a link between the primitively egalitarian communism of the extreme wing of the French revolution and the modern totalitarian communism of the Bolshevik revolution.

Pëtr Lavrov was one of the main theorists of Russian populism (narodnichestvo) – a trend of thought and a movement which crystallized after the abolition of serfdom in Russia in 1861. There were many different currents within this broad trend but all of them concentrated on the possibility and desirability of securing a non-capitalist way of development for Russia. This was so because the populists, having perceived (often with the help of Marx’s Capital) the contradictions of capitalist development, lost their confidence in ‘European’ progress, recognized in capitalism only a regression and chose therefore an adamantly anti-capitalist stand, combined, as a rule, with backward-looking idealization of the peasant commune. The dominant Western theories of social evolution – from Spencerian liberalism to Marxism – strongly emphasized the ‘objective’ character of the laws of social development and defined capitalism as a necessary phase of progress. Russian populist socialists deeply felt that in Russia’s backward condition such theories offered a convenient tool for apologists of capitalist progress, who sanctioned and justified the suffering of the masses by referring to the ’objective laws of history’ or ‘the iron laws of political economy’. This led them to a demonstrative rejection of the ’objectivist’ conception of progress. Lavrov was the first populist theorist who set against ’objectivism’ a conscious and systematic vindication of ’subjectivism’. He was supported in this by another populist thinker, Nikolai Mikhailovskii. The common features of their views have been labelled ’subjective sociology’ or the ’subjective method’.

Nikolai Chernyshevskii was the main theorist of the Russian democratic radicalism of ‘the 1860s’ or, more precisely, of the period of political ‘thaw’ and liberal reforms which followed Russian defeat in the Crimean War and the enthronement (in 1855) of Alexander II. He was also the best representative of the non-conformist elements among the raznochintsy, that is, the educated commoners, who at that time began to figure prominently in Russian intellectual and social life. As such, he exerted a powerful formative influence on the Russian intelligentsia. In 1862 Chernyshevskii was arrested, brought to trial and, despite insufficient evidence, condemned to lifetime banishment in Siberia. In exile, preserving his integrity to the end, he stoutly refused to ask for clemency (as a result, he remained in a remote Siberian village until 1883). In prison, waiting for trial, he wrote the novel Chto Delat’ (What Is To Be Done?) in which he showed the ‘new men’ of Russia – ‘rational egoists’, devoted to the cause of progress, and even a type of ascetic, self-sacrificing revolutionist. Thanks to a strange oversight of the censor the novel was serialized in the journal Sovremennik (The Contemporary) and, despite lack of literary distinction, became a powerful source of inspiration for several generations of Russian progressive youth. Chernyshevskii’s philosophical reputation was created by the Russian Marxists. The ‘father of Russian Marxism’, G.V. Plekhanov, greatly impressed by Chernyshevskii’s combination of Feuerbachian materialism and respect for Hegelian dialectics, described him as an important precursor of dialectical materialism. This view was taken up by Lenin who in Materialism and Empiriocriticism called Chernyshevskii ‘the great Russian Hegelian and materialist’, the only Russian philosopher before Marxism who was able to defend ‘integral materialism’ against the agnosticism and subjectivism of Neo-Kantians, positivists, Machists and ‘other muddleheads’. Soviet philosophers went even further: Chernyshevskii was treated by them not only as the greatest Russian philosopher before Marxism, but also as the greatest pre-Marxian philosopher of the world, founder of the highest form of pre-Marxian materialism. For several decades this was the obligatory dogma of the Soviet official ideology. After the breakdown of the Soviet Union, interest in Chernyshevskii’s philosophy almost completely disappeared in Russia. It is impossible, however, to deny Chernyshevskii’s importance in Russian intellectual history. Hence the need of rethinking his philosophical legacy.